Film Comment’s annual end-of-year survey was revealed today with Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite (now playing at FLC), Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood taking the top spots among films released in 2019. Of the films that screened at festivals worldwide but have not announced stateside distribution, Sergei Loznitsa’s State Funeral, Eloy Enciso Cachafeiro’s Endless Night, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth received the top rankings. 

The nearly 100 poll participants are all Film Comment contributors from the past year and include Ina Diane Archer (The Smithsonian), Ela Bittencourt (Brazil-based programmer), Andrew Chan (The Criterion Collection), Ashley Clark (BAMcinématek), Nick Davis (FC contributing editor, Northwestern University), Molly Haskell, J. Hoberman (The New York Times), Eric Hynes (Museum of the Moving Image curator), Nellie Killian (programmer and FC contributing editor), Michael Koresky (Reverse Shot editor), Dennis Lim (Film at Lincoln Center), Christina Newland, Sheila O’Malley (RogerEbert.com), Andréa Picard (Toronto International Film Festival), Nick Pinkerton, Jonathan Romney (FC contributing editor), Sukhdev Sandu (New York University), Imogen Sara Smith (FC columnist), Amy Taubin (FC and Artforum contributing editor), Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan (curator and critic), Wang Muyan (The Paper [China]), and Manu Yáñez Murillo (Otros Cines Europa).

The top 10 films of 2019 were unveiled last night at a special live talk with critics Devika Girish, Michael Koresky, Soraya Nadia McDonald, and Amy Taubin, moderated by Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold; listen to the lively discussion on this week’s Film Comment podcast. The complete lists of released and unreleased films are included below.

“It’s a special treat to see Parasite, which was the cover of Film Comment’s September/October issue, reach the top of our Best Films of 2019 poll!” said Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold. “We’re proud to have supported the art and craft of the year’s greatest films through the outstanding writing and experienced voices that the movie-loving readers of Film Comment have come to expect and trust. We hope everyone enjoys these movies as much as we did!”

Film Comment’s Top 20 Films Released in 2019:

  1.   Parasite Bong Joon Ho, South Korea
  2.   The Irishman Martin Scorsese, USA
  3.   Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood Quentin Tarantino, USA/UK/China
  4.   Transit Christian Petzold, Germany/France
  5.   Atlantics Mati Diop, France/Senegal/Belgium
  6.   The Souvenir Joanna Hogg, UK/USA
  7.   High Life Claire Denis, Germany/France/USA/UK/Poland
  8.   Ash Is Purest White Jia Zhangke, China
  9.   Pain and Glory Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
  10. Uncut Gems Josh and Benny Safdie, USA
  11. Marriage Story Noah Baumbach, USA
  12. La Flor Mariano Llinás, Argentina
  13. An Elephant Sitting Still Hu Bo, China
  14. Long Day’s Journey Into Night Bi Gan, China/France
  15. Synonyms Nadav Lapid, France/Israel/Germany
  16. Asako I & II Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, Japan/France
  17. Us Jordan Peele, USA
  18. The Image Book Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland
  19. Portrait of a Lady on Fire Céline Sciamma, France
  20. Ad Astra James Gray, USA

Film Comment’s Top 20 Unreleased Films of 2019:

  1.   State Funeral Sergei Loznitsa, Netherlands/Lithuania
  2.   Endless Night Eloy Enciso Cachafeiro, Spain
  3.   To the Ends of the Earth Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan
  4.   MS Slavic 7 Sofia Bohdanowicz and Deragh Campbell, Canada
  5.   Present.Perfect. Shengze Zhu, USA/Hong Kong
  6.   Oh Mercy! Arnaud Desplechin, France
  7.   Tommaso Abel Ferrara, Italy
  8.   Bait Mark Jenkin, UK
  9.   Belonging Burak Çevik, Turkey/Canada/France
  10. Midnight in Paris James Blagden and Roni Moore, USA
  11. No Data Plan Miko Revereza, USA
  12. It Must Be Heaven Elia Suleiman, France/Qatar/Germany/Canada/Turkey/Palestine
  13. Wasp Network Olivier Assayas, France/Spain/Brazil
  14. So Pretty Jessie Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli, USA/France
  15. Just 6.5 Saeed Roustayi, Iran
  16. Bird Island Sergio da Costa and Maya Kosa, Switzerland
  17. What We Left Unfinished Mariam Ghani, Afghanistan/Qatar/USA
  18. You Will Die at 20 Amjad Abu Alala, Sudan/France/Egypt/Germany/Norway/Qatar
  19. Lina from Lima María Paz González, Chile/Argentina/Peru
  20. The Devil Between the Legs Arturo Ripstein, Mexico

See more here and listen to their podcast discussion of the top 10 best of 2019 below.